LIVE: The Badloves, Perth, 10 May, 2015

Shane | 14 May 2015 | Reply

LIVE: The Badloves, Perth, 10 May, 2015
The Charles Hotel, Perth, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
Photography by Maree King

Gigs go bad sometimes, through no real fault of the talent on show.

Take Saturday’s appearance of Michael Spiby & Tony Featherstone from The Badloves… or was it The Badloves themselves? Or The Baby Bad Animals Loves? Even Spiby seemed confused, early on quipping that he wasn’t sure what they were supposed to call themselves on this tour.

But it was The Badloves whose music they were playing – with the two Badlovians united for the first time with former Baby Animals rhythm section Frank Celenza and Eddie Parise for a run through their seminal 1994 Get On Board debut in full.

Whether they were under-rehearsed or holding back, something wasn’t right from the get-go. Tracks that on record have all the swing and feel of Motown and Stax classics, sounded jilted – sluggish, even. The two halves did not gel.

But work through the album they did: Sugar Daddy, What’s On Your Mind and the rest all sounding just a little under-cooked. Finally there were only two left: Green Limousine sounded really good – and by the time they got to Lost, they nailed it. The Badloves were back and sounding like we’d had the pleasure of hearing them in the past!

[Show picture list]

Then things went REALLY awry.

Halfway through Lost, the sound went out and there was… nothing.

The band left the stage, roadies and techs wandered back and forth…

But – and here is the real kicker – no-one said a goddamn thing to the crowd. What was happening? A diva fit? A power cut? The threat of impending nuclear Armageddon? We weren’t to know.

Fifteen minutes later (still no announcement) people started to leave, and when the band finally did come back on stage (after roughly 25 minutes) they thanked everyone who was left for their patience and delivered a great The Weight. Perhaps they’d used the time backstage to rehearse together?

An encore of Caroline and Booker T’s classic Green Onions closed out proceedings, but with the band only on stage for an hour or so in total, it wasn’t the best we’ve seen these guys, far less the best night out ever.